American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2015 - 23

IndustryDigest
District Judge Jay Zainey in a case filed
in Plaquemines Parish against Total
Petrochemicals & Refining USA Inc.
and 18 defendants. According to media
sources, Zainey ruled the energy
companies had not proved their
assertions that hearing their cases in
federal court complied with U.S. statutes.
In their ruling, both judges pointed
out that while multiple companies were
involved in each case, the allegations
overlapped since they were operating in
the same fields and the parishes sought
similar remedies, press accounts state.
The judges also both rejected
defendants' contention that the Outer
Continental Shelf Lands Act should
apply to the cases, holding that alleged
damages happened on lands within the
parishes, not in federal waters.
The parishes filed the lawsuits in
November 2013 in state courts, and the
energy companies sought to move
them to federal courts, press reports
say. The parishes are seeking for the
companies to pay for the
environmental damages if they don't
repair the wetlands, arguing state laws
give them special authority to regulate
their "coastal zones" that include
wetlands within their borders.
The parishes filed the lawsuits after
U.S. District Court Judge Nanette
Jolivette Brown rejected a lawsuit filed
in 2013 by the Southeast Louisiana
Flood Protection Authority-East against
oil and gas companies, ruling the levee
board lacked legal standing to bring suit
under state or federal laws. r

Western Coalition Files
Legal Challenges To
Sage Grouse Studies

DENVER-A coalition of
stakeholders and counties is challenging
information that the Bureau of Land
Management, U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service and U.S. Geological Survey are
using to make public lands and
Endangered Species Act listing
decisions for the greater sage grouse.
The group submitted three Data
Quality Act challenges regarding
reports the agencies are using to justify
what the coalition says are top-down
restrictive measures that will damage
communities in sage grouse habitats

across the West while discouraging
more effective state and local
conservation efforts.
Part of a 2001 appropriations
legislation, the Data Quality Act directs
the Office of Management and Budget
to issue governmentwide guidelines to
ensure federal agencies maximize the
quality, objectivity and integrity of
information they disseminate.
Those challenging the federal
agencies include the Western Energy
Alliance, Petroleum Association of
Wyoming, Independent Petroleum
Association of America, Montana
Petroleum Association, and county
governments in Colorado, Montana,
Nevada and Utah.
"Coalition members support state,
local and private sage grouse
conservation efforts over the one-sizefits-all measures being imposed by
federal agencies," the Western Energy
Alliance says. "The states are much better
suited, with their expertise as wildlife
managers, to protect the sage grouse."
According to the challenge, USFWS
based its sage grouse listing decision
and the three agencies are revising 98
land use plans across 50 million acres of
BLM land using studies released by
each agency. "Prescriptions from the
three reports are heavily influencing
policies not only for federal lands, but
for the full 186 million acres of greater
sage grouse habitat, yet the reports fail
to meet basic standards of science,
resulting in misinformed policy that will
harm the greater sage grouse and the
West," the groups state.
The reports advance a one-sided
narrative that is not supported by the
full body of scientific literature and
data, the coalition says, but instead rely
on an insular group of scientistadvocates who deviate from providing
credible, accurate data to advance
policies they personally support. Peer
reviewers have found the reports to be
inaccurate, unreliable and biased, the
coalition says, with substantial technical
errors, including misleading use of
authority and failures to address studies
that don't support the federal narrative.
The coalition asks that the three
agencies retract the reports and their use
in land-use plan amendments and the
upcoming listing decision, or issue
amended reports that use analytical
methods and the best data available

while ensuring transparency and
objectivity. r

NOAA Seeks Expansion
Of Right Whale Habitat

WASHINGTON-The National
Marine Fisheries Service, part of the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, is proposing to expand
the designated critical habitat for
endangered North Atlantic right whales
in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean
The rule, issued as part of a courtapproved settlement agreement, would
expand the critical habitat to 29,945
square miles, NOAA Fisheries says,
includes calving grounds from southern
North Carolina to northern Florida and
northeast feeding areas in the Gulf of
Maine/Georges Bank region. The
protected area would stretch almost to
the 50-mile boundary off Georgia and
North and South Carolina, which
President Obama is considering opening
to oil and gas activities.
The critical habitat designation
means federal agencies conducting,
funding or permitting activities that may
affect those areas must consult with
NOAA Fisheries to evaluate whether
and how those actions would affect the
habitat, the agency says. The
designation identifies geographic areas
containing physical and biological
features essential to the species,
according to the agency, adding such
designations don't create preserves or
refuges, or any other regulations
directly affecting the public.
According to media reports, nine
companies have applied to begin
seismic surveys in preparation for oil
and gas exploration in the Atlantic
Ocean, including areas that have been
deemed critical habitat for the right
whale.
Brian Straessle, a spokesman for the
American Petroleum Institute, was
quoted in news reports saying API was
reviewing the critical habitat proposal.
He refuted allegations the surveys were
harmful to whales, saying decades of
experience and research indicate the
surveys have little to no impact on
marine wildlife populations.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy
Management has approved the seismic
survey plans, saying there has been no
documented scientific evidence that the
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American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2015

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